8 Foods You’ll Be Surprised To Learn Aren’t Always Vegan

By Julie R. Thomson
We live in a very vegan-friendly food world these days. Even Ben & Jerry’s has put out a couple of vegan flavors. Unfortunately, not all foods are so nice. We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but there’s a chance that some of your favorite foods are not as vegan-friendly as you may have thought. You probably already know that honey isn’t vegan and you know the ugly truth about red food dye (it’s made out of crushed beetles), but there are more foods you’d never suspect are made with the help of animal products. We’re talking candy, beer and sometimes even cereal.

If you want to make sure you don’t accidentally ingest an animal product, we suggest you check out the list of these eight seemingly vegan (but definitely not) foods.

Non-dairy creamer is mostly made from sugar, oil and thickeners, but there’s one sneaky ingredient that finds its way into a lot of non-dairy creamers — sodium caseinate. In case you didn’t know, sodium caseinate is a milk protein. Look for vegan-friendly creamers instead.

3Worcestershire Sauce

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In case you didn’t know, it’s made with fermented anchovies. Worcestershire sauce can show up in sneaky places ― like Bloody Marys ― so be on the look out next time you go to brunch. FYI, anchovies also show up in Caesar salads, olive tapenade and pasta puttanesca.

Traditional refried beans are made with lard. So next time you go out for Mexican, you might want to double check with the cook. If you’re picking up a can at the store, be sure to look for the vegetarian version (and read the ingredients carefully to make sure it’s actually vegan).